Al-Qaeda chief 'tape' calls for overthrow of Musharraf

A tape purportedly recorded by Ayman al-Zawahri, the No 2 in the al-Qaeda terror group, urged Pakistanis today to overthrow President Pervez Musharraf.

In the audio tape broadcast by the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, the speaker called Musharraf a "traitor" and called on Pakistani soldiers to disobey him.

"Musharraf seeks to stab the Islamic resistance in Afghanistan in the back," the voice said.

"Every Muslim in Pakistan should work hard to get rid of this client government, which will continue to submit to America until it destroys Pakistan," the speaker said.

The authenticity of the tape could not be immediately verified, but the speaker sounded like al-Zawahri on previous audio and video tapes. He also peppered his speech with references to the Islamic holy book, the Quran, which is known to be al-Zawahri's style.

The tape comes as Pakistani troops are in the second week of a campaign along the Afghan border in South Waziristan, a long-time hiding place and stronghold of Islamic militants from al-Qaeda, Afghanistan's Taliban and their Pakistani supporters.

After Musharraf spoke hopefully of capturing a "high value target", there was speculation that al-Zawahri himself might be in the rugged border area where local tribes have more power than the Pakistani federal government.

It is not known when the tape was recorded, but the speaker appeared to be referring to the conflict in South Waziristan when he said: "I call on the Pakistani army: you, poor army, what a miserable state Musharraf has put you in ... Musharraf ruins your natural fences - those tribes on the border - by engaging you in a fight with them. Then he removes your nuclear weapons. Will you stay silent until Pakistan is divided again?"

The voice said that such military operations on the borders were against Islamic law as they pitted Muslims against each other at America's bidding.

"Every soldier who finds this act to be legitimate is an infidel, according to Islamic law," the speaker said.

He instructed Islamic clerics to tell the Pakistani people "the truth about Musharraf, the traitor and killer of Muslims."

"They should incite the nation to expel the crusaders from Pakistan," the voice said, using the word "crusader" for Americans as Islamic militants often do.

The speaker said: "the crusade in Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya and Palestine is targeting Pakistan primarily, because America does not want Pakistan to be a special power in the centre of Asia.

The CIA was reviewing the tape in an effort to determine whether it was authentic, a US intelligence official was quoted by Reuters as saying.